From more magic mushroom research, microdosing and retreats – to a profusion of superpower mushrooms infused in foods, drinks and beauty products

The 2017 Global Wellness Summit kicked off with a serious dose of…mushrooms.

Award-winning filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg’s opening talk sneak-previewed his extraordinary new film on the unappreciated power of mushrooms: from their crucial role in Earth’s ecosystem to the mounting medical evidence that they’re uniquely effective human medicine. Largely hidden from our eyes (mushrooms only come to the surface to “fruit”, i.e. spread their spores) the kingdom of fungi – neither vegetable or animal, but somewhere in between – is actually the largest set of organisms on the planet. A vast underground network (like the “Internet” of nature), mushrooms are Earth’s main decomposers and their constant “munching” makes possible soil – and all plant, animal and human life. And while most westerners only toss a few white button mushrooms into their spaghetti sauce (unlike Asian cultures that embrace so many mushrooms as food and medicine), Schwartzberg detailed the surging medical evidence for so many mushroom breeds: From lion’s mane’s ability to regrow nerve cells and prevent dementia to strong evidence that turkey tail mushrooms help our immune system fight cancer.

Schwartzberg also analyzed the ancient history, and eye-opening new clinical evidence, for that most “underground” variety of all: psychedelic magic shrooms, those 200 species containing psilocybin that alter the mind by forging new neural pathways in the brain. For thousands of years magic mushrooms were used in cultures worldwide: from the Ancient Greeks (yes, Plato and Socrates) to the Aztecs. And, in the 1960s, leading medical institutions like Harvard undertook studies indicating magic mushrooms’ serious promise for things like depression and addiction. All of which came to a crashing, counterculture-fearing halt when many countries, like France (1966), the U.S. (1970), and the UK (2005), made them (and other psychedelics) highly illegal drugs, putting the kibosh on this important research for decades.

Well, now the research is again on fire, with dozens of studies coming out of top universities like Imperial College-London, NYU, UCLA, the University of Zurich, and Johns Hopkins (with its dedicated Psilocybin Research institute) on magic mushrooms’ too-powerful-to-be-ignored impact on everything from nicotine and alcohol addiction, PTSD, headaches, OCD – and especially depression and anxiety…often with a single dose, and with the positive effects lasting months. As Roland Griffiths, PhD, one of the top U.S. psychopharmacologists and lead psilocybin investigator at Johns Hopkins, put it, “It’s a Rip Van Winkle effect—after three decades of no research, we’re rubbing the sleep from our eyes.” Important research is just ahead: Compass Pathways (with high-profile investors like Peter Thiel, Mike Novogratz and Christian Angermayer) is about to start major clinical trials testing magic mushrooms’ impact on depression in eight European countries in early 2018 – the largest clinical trial of psilocybin ever. Non-profit Usona is also in the development stages for new studies on psilocybin’s impact on depression and anxiety.

So, if Louie Schwartzberg’s opening presentation at the Summit on the unique “magic” that mushrooms deliver to our brains and bodies may have at first seemed far out, it’s anything but.

Because the rediscovery and creative uses of mushrooms – in mental wellness, as true superfoods, and in beauty products (and more) – will be a top wellness trend in 2018 and beyond. “Brain resetting” magic mushrooms will start to emerge from underground: more people will microdose them as creativity and brain boosters (a Silicon Valley “start-up” practice now spreading around the world). And, yes, magic mushroom retreats (like MycoMeditations) will keep popping up in places where legal (whether Jamaica or the Netherlands), where the “trip” gets combined with increasingly luxe wellness experiences. And we’ll see movement on the legalization front, making this magic mushroom moment reminiscent of the early days of the cannabis-as-wellness trend.

And as medical evidence also ramps up showing that non-magic mushrooms are magical for human health (with adaptogenic, anti-aging and other powers), we’ll see a new world of mushrooms like reishi, chaga, lion’s mane and cordyceps get worked into so many more foods and drinks, from coffee to chocolate – as well as a growing profusion of shrooms in beauty products. And on both the psychedelic and non-psychedelic fronts it’s a trend driven by new medical studies…how welcome in an era with so much “evidence-free” wellness.

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. Psychedelic drugs are having a surprising renaissance, being used experimentally in therapeutic settings to treat depression, addiction and the fear of death in people with cancer. My guest, Michael Pollan, has written a new book called “How To Change Your Mind: What The New Science Of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, And Transcendence.” Continue Reading…

As part of this effort, we’ve produced an exciting short film that highlights how scientists have found a surprising new way to fight back. Get up close and personal with these extraordinary creatures that help feed the earth’s population. Continue Reading…

“Wonder and curiosity drive us to explore because we are surrounded by things we can’t see, and that triggers our imagination, inspiring art and science. I love making the invisible visible. Using the art of time lapse and slow motion cinematography, I can stretch the imagination by creating journeys through portals of time, and scale.

Have you ever imagined what it’s like to experience the world from the point of view of a flower or a hummingbird? When we see Life through their perspective it expands your vision and opens your heart, unveiling the mysteries of Life, and that is transformational. Continue Reading…

In this final week of the official Gratitude Lab, we turn our focus to faith and community. How ironic – and how perfect – that another of Louie’s inspirational muses – the underground world of mycelium network – just happens to parallel this sense of connection, wonder, and gratitude.

“Mother Trees” is the film trailer we showed to you last year, but seems increasingly relevant and vital to see and share today, so here it is for you.

If you know of anyone who feels disconnected, or who might need to be uplifted with some hope and beauty, please share this with them. It might just provide the very comfort they need right now.

You may have heard, we have been talking a lot about gratitude. If you haven’t seen Louie Schwartzberg’s extraordinary work upon the Guggenheim rotunda, you’ll not want to miss it. We also have an exciting program running right now called the Gratitude Lab. Made possible by the generosity of John Templeton Foundation, we have created 4 beautiful “portals” of gratitude for you to explore and experience: Families, Schools (K-12), Faith (congregations and communities), and College/Universities.

While the results have been beyond moving, we’ve also received a number of requests to create a portal for the individual. In truth, this was an oversight on our part! Of course, we should have provided the option for you, the individual, to dive deep into your own heart.

And so, we have created the following 3-Day Gratitude Challenge just for YOU. Continue Reading…

Dr. Robert Bilder is a remarkable person. Yes, he is remarkable for his resume, which gives one cotton mouth when trying to absorb the depth of his career, but even more remarkable is his dedication to the exceptional health and well-being of young students at UCLA, Louie Schwartzberg’s alma mater and where Dr. Bilder currently serves as Professor-in-Residence. For the last six years, Dr. Bilder and his colleagues at UCLA have been developing a ground-breaking program called the Healthy Campus Initiative. Dr. Bilder leads the Mind Well program within this initiative, to promote well-being, resilience, social connectedness, and creative achievement among UCLA’s students, staff, and faculty. Other campuses around the globe are following UCLA’s lead, and Gratitude Revealed sat down with Dr. Bilder to ask him to share his experiences with helping young men and women address their struggles with isolation, connection and stress.

On Thursday, December 15, 2016 the lights went down within the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. What followed was a miracle of sorts. In the darkness, light was suddenly projected upon the structure’s iconic spiral rotunda – 5 stories high – and the central gallery floor filled with healthcare CEO’s from around the globe fell awe-struck and mesmerized by nature’s beauty, filmed by Louie Schwartzberg. For some, this was an epiphany – the first time they had witnessed visual healing in action.

We’ve captured the event as Louie’s New Year’s gift to you in this video below. Find a quiet place to rest for 5 minutes and let it reveal itself to you. See if you are not filled with hope, resilience and gratitude.

Expanding Heart Connections

HeartMath is committed to helping activate the heart of humanity. They suggest that by creating an alignment and connection between our mind and heart, and with each other’s hearts, we awaken the higher mental, emotional and spiritual capacities that are dormant within us. Compassion, Resonance and Transformation are the core values that underlie their business.

Heather Hayward is a Licensed HeartMath Trainer who leads workshops and works in private practice helping people learn the techniques and technology from the Institute of HeartMath. For over thirty years, Hayward has dedicated her career to the field of personal well-being. As a Results Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Meditation Teacher, author and speaker, she successfully works with a diverse client population in one-on-one and group settings connecting them to their heart, producing sustainable change through Comfort, Humor and Inspiration (C.H.I.).

Specializing in creating custom written guided meditations for actors to business owners, writers to lawyers, youth to mature clients, and everything in between, these recordings support them to quickly self-correct, reduce negative self-talk and stay committed to their positive changes.

Since ’tis the season for heightened stress and potential holiday tension among families, and since Gratitude Lab is shining a spotlight on nurturing gratitude within families, we sat down with Hayward to ask for some tips to get through to the New Year. Continue Reading…

Ashley Weber teaches high school French. Every Thursday, she asks the students to dedicate the first 10 minutes to writing a thank you note. And, you might be shocked to learn… they LOVE IT. Because of Thank You Thursday, there are currently over 1600 messages of thanks out in the world. At that, Madame Weber can only stand back and say merci.

When Gratitude Revealed came across this video, we were so moved and inspired, we had to find out more about how this extraordinary teen transformation occurred. Enjoy the video and then read the interview that follows below.

Q&A With Louie Schwartzberg

Gratitude Lab Kicks Off With a Sit-Down With Louie

If you haven’t heard yet, Gratitude Lab is now officially begun! In response to your requests, we’ve curated the best gratitude videos, gratitude facts, DIY projects for you to download, and…. a series of gratitude exercises which can be adapted to fit your specific needs.

As Louie’s holiday gift to you, he’ll gather your anonymous insights, along with his breath-taking photography, and create a beautiful Gratitude E-book.

Louie has a lot to say on the subject of Gratitude. We sat down with him to ask him a few questions about this subject and more… Continue Reading…

August 21st marked the end of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. World-class athletes from all corners of the globe have returned home, some with medals marking their incredible accomplishments. As those games come to a close, however, a new set of games is just on the horizon: the Compassion Games. No plane tickets or passports required.

Jon Ramer, the founder of Compassion Games International (CGI), reached out to Moving Art in support of this year’s Global Unity Games, one of five annual Games that CGI hosts each year. The Global Unity Games will begin on September 11th and run through September 21st of this year.

The Compassion Games are the world’s largest compassion “coopetitions.” No one can lose the Compassion Games; and the more people that play, the more people that win. The goal is to inspire as much compassionate action in communities around the world as possible, through volunteering, random acts of compassion, and more.

Want to learn more? We asked Jon some questions about the origin of the games, how to participate, and what makes compassion such an important notion to share.Continue Reading…

Sometimes reaching out across the world wide web can lead to amazing things – as they did when Mrs. Fenn, an elementary school teacher at Ridpath Public School in Ontario, Canada reached out to Louie Schwartzberg on Twitter about her class’ interest in one of our favorite topics at Moving Art: fungi.

We had the pleasure of following Mrs. Fenn’s class as they learned about mushrooms and fundraised to support our upcoming documentary Fantastic Fungi. It was always a highlight of our day when we received an update on how the class was doing!

This past week Louie and Mrs. Fenn’s class connected through the power of Skype, where the students asked all sorts of questions about fungi and filmmaking. In turn, we asked Mrs. Fenn to give us a little background on her class, and how these first and second graders got so fascinated by the network living underground.

There’s a Goethe quote that Tiffany Shlain has had framed on her desk since she was a little girl:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

By any standard for success, Tiffany has accomplished a lot. She has contributed an impressive amount of value to the world, combining film with the web to make and evolve change. She is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, has spoken at multiple TED events, and delivered a commencement speech to UC Berkeley praised as among the best ever by NPR, just to name a few feathers in her signature chapeau.

Family is a priority for Shlain, and themes of connection are predominant throughout her work. Both her family and her companies, The Moxie Institute Film Studio and nonprofit Let It Ripple, are based in San Francisco, where she is currently preparing to launch her 3rd annual global event, Character Day.

We had the privilege and honor of sitting down with Tiffany to discuss focus, moxie and inspirational tips for how to produce effective change in the world. Continue Reading…

The week was started by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, because of the former first lady’s belief that wildflowers “give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours.”

Louie Schwartzberg’s lengthy career has been dedicated to capturing the beauty of nature using pioneering time-lapse techniques that take us on journeys through time and scale. As beautiful as these images are, they also come with a deeper purpose. “Beauty is nature’s tool for survival,” Louie is often quoted as saying, “we protect what we love.” He shares his films to encourage audiences to not only see what’s beautiful about the world around us, but to also encourage its protection. This makes last week’s Earth Day and this week’s Arbor Day especially important here at Gratitude Revealed and Moving Art.

In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, we have a very special interview for you. We had the pleasure of speaking to Sean Watkins, the social media manager at GreenFaith (a Gratitude Revealed partner!), an interfaith coalition for the environment that was founded in 1992. If “faith” and “environment” seem like a contradiction of terms to you now, just wait to read how Sean and GreenFaith are correcting that notion.

In our conversation, he explains how GreenFaith considers climate change to be a moral issue, and how the organization has brought together people of all religions and spiritualities for this cause. In particular, he tells us about The People’s Pilgrimage, a walk from Rome to Paris prior to the COP 21 climate talks last December.

Plus, he connects everything back to a belief we here at GR hold dear to our hearts: gratitude.

Norman Lear has had a long and storied (pun intended) career as a writer and producer of American television. His shows, including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and The Jeffersons, defined the sitcom format. Everyone knows an Archie Bunker.

He is a master at making people laugh, but you might be surprised to find that his skill with the witty quip isn’t what has given his career longevity – it’s purpose.

Our own Louie Schwartzberg sat down with Norman to talk about how purpose plays a key role in his life. In order to illustrate this, Norman did what he does best – he told a story.Continue Reading…

If you were in NYC on March 31, you probably felt the enchantment in the air. That’s because MUSE was in town. MUSE events are “enchanted evenings where art, life science & technology meet to inspire the Who’s Who in health.” It’s a modern-day adaptation of the salon from the Age of Enlightenment but instead of poets, painters and philosophers, the attendees include physicians, patient advocates, health researchers, health technology startups and pharma professionals. This year, it boasted an inspirational roster of speakers, including our own Louie Schwartzberg and his dear friend, Arianna Huffington. Continue Reading…